Can't India do without this Rs 5.5 cr A R Rehman song?
| May 01 2010
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said last week that people living in the capital can afford to pay more taxes or higher electricity rates. Dikshit also said earlier that since all the facilities being built for the Commonwealth Games will be used by Delhi, its citizens should pay up for creating the same.
The Games are a big deal for India's prestige and just how big you will know from these figures: The central government budgeted Rs 8,343 crore for various ministries and departments, of which the Delhi government gets Rs 2,800 crore. The Organising Committee (OC), chaired by Suresh Kalmadi, gets Rs 1,620 crore plus Rs 687 crore for “overlays”. For the opening and closing ceremonies, the bill is Rs 200 crore. These two gala events can't just have the bursting of crackers and schoolchildren presenting song and dance, you also require creative ideas, which don't come cheap. So, there's a creative director who is taking home Rs 25 lakh a month.
But here's the icing on the cake: AR Rahman, popular film music director, will compose a theme song for the opening ceremony. When it's a Rahman song, it does not come, well, for a song. He reportedly was asking for Rs 15 crore but given the patriotic aspect to it all – Rahman is very patriotic and he has been honoured with Padma Vibhushan for this, he has agreed to give the Common Man a discount. He will charge only Rs 5.5 crore from us!
Now the idea of organising a big sporting event is fine: Indian athletes go abroad for events hosted by others, now it's our turn. But that does not mean throwing a Rs 200 crore party also makes business sense. Whatever Rahman, post his Academy Award, might be charging Bollywood and Hollywood producers, in this instance his logic seems to be that there's nothing wrong or unpatriotic in doing what everybody else is doing. The Common Man cannot afford a Rs 5.5 crore song. Pray, what is the utility of this extravagance after the event? So the question today is, can India afford a this A R Rehman song? Can't we do without it?
Thank you for bringing up such issues, it's so pathetic of those elite class who only thinks of self hoarding the wealth. I think it's high time to take out from closet all those elite Indians whose contribution towards Social cause is nill or negligible. Look at Bill Gates! and all those billionaires in other parts of the World. They contribute a lot for social cause. According to latest Forbes survey of "Richest Man on Earth" in top 100 how many Indians are there? and in Top 10 also Indian. But why they en mass so much of wealth for what? only for their grand childrens? So sad, hoarding people's money and not giving back much as they should.
A.R Rehman is just another piece in the missing link.Patriotic is just in name only.
aditi (not verified)
Don't be such a spoilsport. IPL spent millions of dollars, all siphoned off by corrupt individuals from the tax paying public, and we couldn't have enough of the skimpily-clad cheerleaders dancing maniacally at every hit of the ball! Why grudge Rahman his 5.5 crores? It would not even be a drop in the IPL ocean. What your mag should be questioning is how many of those budgeted CWG crores are being pocketed by the bureaucrats, Kalmadi, Sheila aunty and gang. Now that's the next big breaking story we are all waiting for!
Its time we stopped this utterly nonsense tradition of bracketing heroes as "Patriotic". Just because ARR has composed a few patriotic songs doesn't make him more patriotic than the billion people in this country. And its a shame that he has to charge such a huge sum for composing a song for the commonwealth games.
I wonder if he charged the Oscar academy for performing "Jai ho" during the Academy awards or when he performed the same song in "Jay leno" show. Hypocrisy ?
Its not necessary to appoint Rehman coz. for the above purpose many of other musicians are also there in our country. I think Oscar and Padma vibhushan paved way for him. and in context to the matter where he had charged only and only rs 5.5 crore is quiet impressive coz his patriotism towards country is worth Rs 9.5 crores.
he should deliver his service towards country without any fee for India .....
Post new comment